Evidence of the impacts of the national housing programme on the accessibility of the low‐income population in Rio de Janeiro

The Brazilian shift from a primarily rural to a more urban society has created major challenges that public policies must address. One of the most relevant challenges is deep social exclusion in urban areas, especially in terms of adequate housing and access to urban opportunities (e.g., jobs, housing, and services). In this context, land use and transport planning play a critical role in the sustainable development agenda. The work presented here analyses the accessibility of low‐income dwellings licenced under the Brazilian housing programme to the low‐income population. To evaluate the accessibility of the programme's target population, a case study was conducted in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where 58,000 homes licensed under the programme were analysed using GIS tools in terms of the present public transport network and the location of the homes. The amount of time it takes to access public transport on foot and the homes’ locations in relation to major urban opportunities were also analysed. Finally, the same analysis was performed for the future transport network, and the results of the two analyses were compared to identify the scope of the legacy generated by investments in preparation for the 2016 network.     

浅谈地价评估和管理中的几个问题

土地价格是土地价值和权益的具体表现，是调节土地利用的重要手段。地价管理在推进土地有偿使用、优化配置土地资源、促进土地市场建设等方面发挥着重要作用。而现行地价体系比较成熟的只有作为国有土地使用权出让标准的一种基准地价，为适应其它土地权利流转的需要，应建立以土地权利为核心的新型地价体系。     

安徽省农民人均纯收入地域差异及其原因分析

以SPSS V13．0、Excel、Eviews 3．1和ArcView GIS3．2为工具，运用层次聚类分析和相关分析等方法，分析了安徽省农民人均纯收入的地域差异以及引起地域差异的原因。结果表明，安徽省农民人均纯收入的地域分异由东南向西北递减，并与经济发展水平区内分异性相吻合，这种差异是由自然条件差异和社会条件差异共同造成的。本研究对安徽省农村区域发展均衡性具有一定的指导意义。     

RESIDENTIAL WATER DEMAND: A POOLED,TIME SERIES,CROSS SECTION STUDY OF MALMÖ, SWEDEN1

Shortcoming associated with past water demand studies are evaluated. To overcome these shortcomings, pooled, time series, cross section data from -6, Sweden, are used in an ordinary Least squares analysis to estimate the demand for residential water. Elasticities for five variables, including price and income, are estimated. An approach for the conduct of future water demand studies is suggested.     

Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in a Global Context

The overall aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation with particular reference to carbon emissions and deforestation. The analysis is based upon the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model, which posits an inverted-U relationship between incomes per capita and environmental quality. In particular, the present analysis tries to take into account the current process of globalisation with the aim of defining the impact of the progressive global economic integration on the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. The study confirms that there is an inverted-U relationship between income growth and carbon emissions, while the relationship results less clear in the case of forest change. The inclusion of globalisation in the analysis confirms similar results and suggests a direct link between an increase in the rate of integration with the global economy and a worsening in terms of environmental degradation.     

Cross-country income disparity and its effect on carbon emissions

This study is motivated by the interesting relationship between the income Kuznets curve and the carbon Kuznets curve.This paper focuses on the interaction effects of income distribution and income per capita on CO₂ emissions using country group panel data over the period of 1980 to 2006 by employing fixed effects（FE）,random effects（RE）and feasible generalized least squares（FGLS）estimation methods.The main findings are as follows.（1）There exists an inverted-U relationship between CO₂ emissions per capita and income per capita in all sample countries and high-income groups.（2）The cross-country income disparity has a negative effect on the average level of CO₂ emissions but a positive effect on the aggregate income elasticity of CO₂ emissions.（3）This negative effect of income disparity on the average level of CO₂emissions decreases along with the growth of per capita income.Thus,economic growth contributes to the reduction of this negative impact.     

农地转入规模扩大有助于农民农业增收吗?——基于中国中部5省农户调查的实证研究

在全国农地流转、规模经营的呼声越来越高的背景下,农地流转政策的推行是否起到应有的效果有待检验和反思。论文基于来自我国中部5省925个转入户的调查数据,从3组模型全面考察了农地转入规模与农户农业收入之间的关系。实证研究表明：1）农地转入规模与农业收入呈正向关系,但农地转入规模的经济收益率仅为2.9%。2）农地转入规模对农业收入的作用在不同区域、流转方式、农户类型之间有明显差异：安徽、湖北和湖南较之河南、江西的规模经济收益率更高,农户自发流转下的规模经济收益率高于集体主导方式,农地转入规模对纯农户农业收入的影响要大于对兼业农户。3）农户平均收入水平随着转入规模增加呈现出先增加后降低的“倒U型”趋势,农地转入规模等级越大,其经济收益率却越低。因此,目前我们亟待解决的是加强农地流转对农户收入影响的系统机制研究,寻找制约流转规模效益的因子,降低农户大规模流转时的风险和损失,而不是盲目扩大流转面积。     

Wild fruits as a contribution to sustainable rural development: a case study from the Garhwal Himalaya

Garhwal Himalaya is an important source of wild fruit species. These wild fruit trees grow abundantly across an altitudinal gradient of Himalaya and the majority of them bear fruits during summer. Fruit varieties are eaten raw by the local inhabitants of the region and whilst they are a rich source of protein, carbohydrate, fat and other elements, compared to cultivated fruits, they have not yet been considered as a source of alternative food products. About 13 potentially exploitable species of wild fruits and one semi-domesticated species having high potential for exploitation were selected for study; six (Aegle marmelos, Berberis asiatica, Hippophae rhamnoides, Myrica nagi, Rubus ellipticus and Prunus armeniaca) were examined in detail for their economic potential. Among the wild fruits, Hippophae rhamnoides was found to be economically efficient, followed by Aegle marmelos, Rubus ellipticus and Myrica nagi, respectively. Prunus armeniaca, a semi-domesticated and less utilized fruit of the higher Himalaya, provides better economic returns on an annual basis. The authors have recently made an attempt to utilize these wild fruits as a source of income, particularly for poor rural inhabitants and unemployed youths of the region by making a variety of edible products such as jam, jelly, juice, squash, sauce, etc. The enterprise was demonstrated to the people to encourage them to adopt it in the form of a small village-level cottage industry. The present paper discusses the distribution, botany, phenology, yield, ethnobotany, and uses of these species, and the cost-benefit analysis of food products prepared from them.     

Commuting patterns of Czech households exposed to flood risk from the Bečva river

Using unique data collected in October–December 2012 we estimate the link between commuting for work and level of individual exposure to floods. We find that commuters on average have higher earnings than non-commuters. Individuals affected by one flood commute by 11.2% more than unaffected individuals. We conjecture that the increase is linked to intentions to cover flood-related losses, decrease households' vulnerability to flood risk or out-migrate from the risk areas. Individuals affected by at least two floods are by 20.2% less likely to commute relative to those unaffected. We explain this non-linear effect by the fact that many households out-migrate after the first flood. Stayers commute less, because they are different from non-stayers in some underlying characteristics related to education, employment and family circumstances, which strongly affect commuting behaviour. We further find that in a commuting family an individual is by 53.8% more likely to commence commuting relative to a non-commuting family. Choice of commuting destination is often similar to that of other family members.     

Rain forest dwellers' livelihoods: income generation,household wealth and NTFP sales,a case study from Xishuangbanna,SW China

Through annual in-depth household questionnaire interviews of 60% of households in Daka and Baka villages from 1998 to 2004, we explored wealth-related differences and similarities in the sale of NTFPs of tropical rain forest fringe dwellers in Xishuangbanna, SW China. Contribution of different NTFPs to cash income and different seasonal access to NTFPs between Baka and Daka were analysed. There were significant differences in income and role of NTFPs per household between Baka and Daka related to different access to: NTFPs in forests, labour and market sales in different seasons. In Baka, the ranking of NTFP income was: fungi, wild vegetables, bamboo shoot in 2000 and 2001. Differences in gender and generational involvement in NTFP sales was also examined. For example, households without a son, as well as those with a female householder depended more on income from NTFPs and less on income from rubber than other households. Resource use patterns between relatively wealthy and poor households were also analysed. Wealthy households sold 2.50 ± 0.50 types while poor households sold 2.08 ± 0.26 NTFPs. The Gini coefficient of gross income per household for Baka in recent years was 0.393, increasing to 0.414 without NTFPs. The Gini coefficient of gross income for Daka in recent years was 0.291, increasing to 0.292 without NTFPs, showing the different role of NTFPs in mitigating wealth inequality in the two villages.